2012 National Reconnaissance Office space telescope donation to NASA

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2024-05-10 08:00:06

The 2012 National Reconnaissance Office space telescope donation to NASA was the declassification and donation to NASA of two identical space telescopes by the United States National Reconnaissance Office. The donation has been described by scientists as a substantial improvement over NASA's current Hubble Space Telescope.[citation needed ] Although the telescopes themselves were given to NASA at no cost, the space agency must still pay for the cost of instruments and electronics for the telescopes, as well as the satellites to house them and the launch of the telescopes. On February 17, 2016, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (then known as the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope or WFIRST) was formally designated as a mission by NASA, predicated on using one of the space telescopes.[1]

While the Hubble Space Telescope of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has collected a large amount of astronomical data, has outlived all expectations, and has been described as one of the space agency's most successful missions, the facility will eventually succumb to the extreme environment of space.[2] In addition, with the James Webb Space Telescope costing at least US$9 billion, the agency's astrophysics budget is strained. As a result, NASA's other astrophysics missions have been delayed until funding becomes available.[3]